The research highlights that the rapid urbanization along with the expansion of supermarkets, hypermarkets, and food retail chains in the developing countries, such as India, China, and Brazil, is expected to increase the demand of commercial refrigeration equipment during the forecast period.

The market in Europe is heading towards maturity; however, the short product life cycle of the refrigeration equipment in developed regions along with the increasing floor area of hypermarkets and supermarkets and restaurants chains, the market for commercial refrigeration equipment is expected to witness considerable growth in the coming years. The stringent regulation over the use of F-gases as a refrigerant in commercial refrigeration equipment, owing to its negative effect on the ozone layers, is acting as one of the biggest hindrance in the growth of the commercial refrigeration equipment market.

The commercial refrigeration equipment market is highly fragmented and most often, the end-users need custom based design specifications, to fulfill their requirement. Major manufacturers of commercial refrigeration equipment sell their product as package solutions directly to bulk buyers, such as supermarket and hypermarket retailers. This consists of about 65% to 75% of the commercial refrigeration equipment market. Approximately 20% to 25% of the commercial refrigeration equipment market is covered through independent wholesalers, and remaining 5% to 10% is distributed through the food service equipment providers, such as catering equipment distributers.

Insights on market segments

The study reveals that among the various equipment types, walk-in coolers has been leading the commercial refrigeration equipment revenues. The ice-making machinery is expected to be register highest growth among all equipment types during the forecast period, owing to the expansion of restaurant chains in urban and semi-urban areas of developing countries. Among the various applications of commercial refrigeration, food service continues to be the largest segment. Supermarkets leads the commercial refrigeration end-user revenues, owing to its large capacity and requirement for intensive cooling.

The market to witness fastest growth in Asia-Pacific during the forecast period

Geographically, Asia-Pacific has been the largest as well as fastest growing commercial refrigeration equipment market. Unlike its western countries, the HFCs refrigerant regulation is not so stiff in developing countries of Asia-Pacific. In VI BRICS summit of 2014, all the five members agreed over India’s proposal of not accepting the Montreal Protocol for HFCs, unless other cost-effective alternatives technologies are provided by the developed countries to them. Until that, the HFCs regulation would be regulated with existing Kyoto Protocol. However, the effort to reduce the dependency on HFCs is in process in China.

U.S. remains the major market among the countries, globally, whereas the market in China is expected to grow at highest rate during the forecast period. The capital investment in the U.S. market has improved after the economic slowdown. The increased purchasing power of the consumers has also boosted the foodservice industry and restaurants in recent years. Technical improvements, such as use of proximity sensors, LED lighting systems, and increased adoption of enclosed type refrigeration units, is expected to accelerate the demand for new commercial refrigeration equipment, over the existing units in the U.S. market.

The development in the organized restaurant chains, supermarkets, and hypermarkets in developing countries is one of the key growth drivers for the commercial refrigeration equipment market. In developing countries, such as India, China, and Brazil, the urban consumers have higher purchasing power than those in rural part of these countries. In recent years, the government budget of these countries has shown prospects for the development of new smart urban areas. The urban population in China is expected to reach around 850 million by 2020, as compared to 756 million in 2014. The urban population in India is expected to reach around 465 million by the end of 2020. The increasing level of urbanization is expected to boost the demand of refrigeration equipment in food processing industries, tier II and tier I restaurants, hypermarkets, and medium sized grocery stores, during the forecasted period.

Fragmented market structure

The global commercial refrigeration equipment market is fragmented with small number of large players and large number of small regional players. Apart from United Technologies Corporation (UTC), other major competitors held less than 10% share in the global market in 2016. UTC is focused on organic growth to further increase its market share in the coming years. The major strategic development in the market during the recent years includes product launch, client win, and mergers and acquisitions. Some of the major players in the market include United Technologies Corporation, Johnson Controls, Daikin Industries, Dover Corporation, Hussmann Corporation, AB Electrolux, Frigoglass S.A.I.C., AHT Cooling Systems GmbH, Ali Group S.p.A., and Illinois Tool Works Inc.